Chapter 161: Are You Serious?!
After silencing the woman, the old man and middle-aged man in the iron cage returned to their original states.
They seemed extremely sensitive to the word "hand." The moment they heard it, it was as if a switch in their memories had been flipped, awakening their deepest fears and dredging up the most terrifying memories from the depths of their minds.
"Why are they afraid of hands?"
Chen Ge searched the room but found nothing related to hands. He then examined the bodies of the three patients; there were no obvious wounds on them, suggesting the fear was more psychological.
"What could have scared three people like this?" Chen Ge, holding his tool hammer, his mind racing, considered a possibility.
According to the information provided by Dr. Gao, the patient in Room 4 of the Third Ward had lost an arm in an accident, leading to phantom limb syndrome—a persistent feeling that his arm was still there. This patient had no name, either forgotten by Dr. Gao or deliberately erased by someone.
"As far as I can recall, the only person connected to 'hand' is this one."
Phantom limb syndrome isn't a particularly terrifying disease; it's a relatively mild psychological condition that can be treated and gradually cured.
Chen Ge was well aware of these facts about phantom limb syndrome. What truly unsettled him was why someone with this condition would be locked up in a closed ward.
What had he done? Why did the hospital consider him a potential threat?
Chen Ge approached the woman again. The middle-aged man refused to communicate, and the old man seemed unable to speak, so the breakthrough still lay with her.
He crouched beside the iron cage, looking into the girl's eyes. Since she couldn't communicate normally, he would try another method to probe.
Leaning close to the cage, Chen Ge made sure the girl could hear him: "Did you see a lot of hands?"
The girl showed no abnormal reaction, only curling up further away from him.
"Then did you see a person with only one arm?"
Before he finished speaking, the woman in the cage began shaking her head violently, even banging it against the bars.
Her extreme reaction revealed much. The one who had brought her nightmares and driven her mad likely had only one arm.
Gazing at the woman's face, Chen Ge noted every subtle change in her expression: "Was he holding a weapon?"
Her eyes widened, and blue veins appeared on her forehead.
"What was he holding? A saw? A knife? Or an axe?"
"Mmph!" The woman's mouth was gagged with the pillowcase; she was agitated but couldn't make a sound.
"So it's one of those. Let me think—what did he do in front of you?" Chen Ge lowered his voice slowly. "Chopping? Cutting? Did he say you were born deformed, not perfect, and wanted to correct that? Or maybe he wanted to take your arm?"
"The number of prisoners is decreasing. When he 'corrected' the patients, you were there, weren't you? You witnessed the whole process, right?"
The woman's face twisted, veins bulging, tears streaming down her cheeks. She kept shaking her head frantically, as if insisting she had seen nothing.
"Do you really know nothing? Then why are you afraid of that hand? Did it fall beside you? Or did it grab you when you tried to escape?"
In Chen Ge's view, though the woman had been driven mad, the horrific memories still lingered in her mind. Seeking benefit and avoiding harm is an instinct of all living things. When he mentioned what she feared, her body involuntarily expressed psychological terror through expressions and habitual movements.
Biological instincts don't lie. Chen Ge had already confirmed part of his speculation from the woman: "Don't be afraid. If you're truly innocent, I'll get you out. I came here tonight to figure all this out and bring those madmen to justice."
The laundry room was thick with the smell of mold. Chen Ge stayed by the woman for a long time, unsure if she understood his words, but he noticed her gradually calming down.
He reached into the cage again and gently removed the pillowcase from her mouth.
Cowering in the cage, the woman looked terrified, her mouth open, still repeating the same word: "Hand, hand..."
"How severe was the trauma to make her like this?" Chen Ge had just tossed the pillowcase aside when the laundry room door was suddenly pushed. The force wasn't strong, as if someone was trying to sneak in, but they hadn't expected a washing machine behind the door.
"The laundry room is at the end of the corridor, and the surrounding rooms are completely sealed. It couldn't be the wind moving the door." Chen Ge picked up the pillowcase and gagged the madwoman again. He looked at the white cat standing among the pile of dirty clothes. Perhaps due to the strong musty smell, the cat hadn't given a timely warning this time.
"It seems I can't rely on others no matter what. Being cautious myself is the right approach." Chen Ge gripped his tool hammer, staring at the door. Right before his eyes, a hand slipped through the crack in the door.
The gap was narrow, allowing only a few fingers to squeeze through, as if checking if the lock was intact.
"The main player has appeared?" After two trial missions, Chen Ge's growth was evident. Calmly, he unzipped his backpack and took out the menacing skull-crushing hammer. Then he removed the micro-camera from his wrist and placed it facing the door.
This camera corresponded to the live stream in the bottom-left corner of his phone screen. By placing it at the door, he could monitor the scene outside the laundry room in real-time through his own stream.
After setting this up, he placed his backpack by his leg, gripped the skull-crushing hammer, and hid beside the door.
Soon, the laundry room door was pushed again. The person outside seemed to lose patience. After a few试探, they slammed into the door with force!
"Bang!"
The washing machine toppled, and the door swung open. Through his phone, Chen Ge saw clearly: two people were standing outside!
One had a deformed face, holding an axe with red stains on its surface; the other, with only one arm, clutched an iron shovel.
They didn't notice the micro-camera nearby. The one-armed man nodded to the deformed-faced man and cautiously stepped into the room with his shovel.
As he took a step forward, his shoe barely crossed the threshold, his body not yet fully inside, when he heard a sharp whoosh in the air!
Chen Ge, silently hidden by the door, raised the skull-crushing hammer high. The moment the one-armed man showed intent to enter, he swung the hammer with all his might toward the door.
His timing was perfect. By the time the one-armed man sensed it, the hammer was already swinging toward his chest.
The grotesque, bloody hammerhead loomed larger and larger in his vision. He only had time to raise his remaining arm to shield himself before he was sent flying out the door, several times faster than he had entered!
Daoist Hou fell asleep... The second chapter is still coming, a bit later.